As Donald Trump’s Russia scandal closes in, James Comey goes public with his secret Twitter account

| 2:32 pm EDT October 23, 2017
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The investigation into Donald Trump’s Russia scandal long ago shifted hands from FBI Director James Comey to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, after Trump fired Comey in a failed attempt at sabotaging the investigation. Since that time Comey has largely laid low, only popping up to publicly testify before Congress in a manner which made clear just how guilty Trump is on obstruction of justice. Now that Mueller is closing in, Comey is suddenly taking himself very public, in what may or may not be a coincidence.

Months ago it was revealed that Comey had a secret Twitter account under the pseudonym Reinhold Niebuhr. He wasn’t tweeting anything, and he instead appeared to be simply using it to keep tabs on Twitter. After he was outed, he posted one tweet which seemed to jokingly confirm that it really was him. Since that time, the account has remained dormant. However, over the past four days, the account has suddenly roared to life with photos from an Iowa road trip. Today, Comey finally outed himself by posting a photo of himself standing in the middle of an Iowa road. So what does this mean?

Along with the photo of himself, Comey tweeted “Goodbye Iowa. On the road home. Gotta get back to writing. Will try to tweet in useful ways.” His friend Benjamin Wittes then officially confirmed that “Reinhold Niebuhr” really is Comey, tweeting “Ok, in light of this latest tweet, I will confirm that @FormerBu is, in fact, James Comey himself.”

James Comey is reportedly writing a book about his FBI experiences before and during the Trump era, which explains his remarks about getting back to writing. The question is why he’s coming out publicly on Twitter now. It’s clear the book isn’t finished yet, so this isn’t about promoting the book, as there’s nothing to promote. It raises the question of whether Comey is choosing now to resurface as a public figure, because he knows the Trump-Russia investigation is about to vindicate his role in it. You can follow Comey’s Twitter account here.